One of New York City’s newest luxury apartment buildings recently started accepting applications for low-income renters who will use a controversial “poor door” – a separate entrance from their wealthier neighbors who pay the full monthly rate.
Meanwhile, in Great Britain, some apartment buildings also require rich and poor residents to use separate entrances. A resident of one such building recently told the Daily Mirror she has “…never felt poorer in my life because of the way we’re kept apart.”
As this controversy illustrates, mixing the rich and poor sounds simple in theory, but can raise a number of complications. And the problem isn’t limited to which door people enter. While economically mixed communities can offer safety, better living conditions and better schools, a growing body of research suggests they can also adversely affect low-income residents.
A Study of Contrasts
Mixed-income housing has become a key aspect of public housing policy in both the US and the UK. In many cities, the towering, crumbling project complexes of the 1960s and 1970s – areas of highly concentrated crime and poverty – have been demolished and replaced by mixed-income developments, where poorer residents live in close proximity to wealthier tenants. Over the past 20 years, upwards of $6 billion has been allocated for developing mixed-income housing through the US Housing and Urban Development’s HOPE VI (Housing Opportunities for People Everywhere) program.
But what’s the impact of growing up on the poorer end of the spectrum?
In a recent study, my colleagues and I tested whether low-income children would benefit from living alongside more affluent neighbors.
We analyzed data from 1,600 children in urban and suburban areas of England and Wales, following the children and their families from birth to age 12. We conducted intensive home assessments, surveyed teachers and neighbors, and collected census information and parent reports. We also used Google Street View images to gauge neighborhood conditions within a half-mile radius of each child’s home.
